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Apple acquires talent, tech from AI startup Prompt
Tech giant Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) is understood to be strengthening its HomeKit ambitions by acquiring the “talent and technology” of Prompt AI, a computer vision company started in 2023. The acquisition underpins Apple’s continued strategy of quietly buying smaller artificial intelligence (AI) startups to enhance specific product capabilities, in this case, computer vision for smart home devices. The acquisition also aligns with Apple’s growing ambitions in home automation, especially through its HomeKit platform. Apple is understood to be developing its first proprietary home security camera, which is expected to rival Amazon’s Ring lineup. Equipped with facial recognition and infrared sensors, the camera aims to identify individuals and detect activity with enhanced privacy controls. What has attracted Apple to Prompt AI is the technology used in its Seemour app, which includes algorithms that not only recognise objects and faces but can also generate textual summaries of recorded activity and respond to user queries. These capabilities could soon find their way into Apple’s smart displays and hubs. Prompt AI plans to shut down the Seemour app and delete user data to maintain privacy compliance before the a
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Deloitte deploys Anthropic's Claude to 470,000 staff
Big four consultancy Deloitte has committed to deploying Anthropic's Claude across its entire global workforce of more than 470,000 employees spanning 150 countries. It's the AI startup's largest enterprise deployment since its founding four years ago, and the expanded partnership builds on an alliance first struck in July 2024. Neither company disclosed financial terms, though Anthropic's chief commercial officer, Paul Smith, told CNBC both firms are investing heavily in the partnership through direct capital and engineering resources dedicated to the rollout. Deloitte will establish a Claude Center of Excellence staffed with specialists developing implementation frameworks and providing technical support to move AI pilots into production at scale. It will also co-create a certification program to train 15,000 professionals on Claude for internal and client deployments. The firm plans to deploy different Claude "personas" tailored to specific roles over the coming months, from accountants analysing financial structures to developers writing production code. Ranjit Bawa, Deloitte's global technology and ecosystems leader, said the internal deployment serves dual purposes - boosting productivity whilst positioning
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Why infrastructure stocks have become AI boom's winners
When Nvidia announced a US$100 billion investment in OpenAI on 22 September, Wall Street erupted in applause. What they missed: that same money flows straight back to Nvidia as chip purchases. It's the most elegant circular financing scheme in modern history. And it's making infrastructure investors extraordinarily rich while everyone else chases the AI dream. While venture capitalists place billion-dollar bets on which AI startup will dominate, private equity firms have doubled down on a safer play - the picks and shovels. Data centres. Power plants. Steel and concrete. The assets every AI company needs, regardless of who wins. "In some ways, it's like selling shovels to people looking for gold," Jon Mauck, Senior Managing Director and Head of Data Centre Investment Strategy at DigitalBridge, told Pitchbook in January 2025. "I don't know who is going to find gold or be the largest AI platform, but whoever is doing anything in that world needs an environment, i.e. a data centre, to deploy it." That realisation is reshaping global capital flows.King-making data centre growth"This is the biggest AI infrastructure project in history," Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told CNBC when announcing Nvidia's OpenAI partnership.
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AI bonanza drives OpenAI’s H1 FY25 revenue up 16%
The rapid expansion of its flagship product, ChatGPT, saw AI giant OpenAI generate US$4.3 billion (A$6.5 billion) in revenue for the first six months of 2025, up around 16% on 2024. As of August, the chatbot had 700 million weekly users, four times the number it had at the same time last year. Due to its research and development costs for developing artificial intelligence and for running ChatGPT, OpenAI told the market it burned $2.5 billion, with costs soaring to $6.7 billion for the division during the first half of 2025. At the end of the first six months of the year, OpenAI had around $17.5 billion in cash and securities and plans to generate $13 billion in annual revenue this year, while total cash burn for the year is expected to reach $8.5 billion. Last week, OpenAI announced plans to build a network of five AI data centres over the next three years at a projected cost of $400 billion, while AI chipmaker Nvidia announced plans to invest up to US$100 billion in OpenAI to build additional new data centres. While OpenAI was valued at $300 billion in March, the company is understood to be in early-stage talks to administer a stock sale that could value the company at $500 billion. OpenAI makes money from seve
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Oracle names cloud infrastructure heads as new co-CEOs
Oracle has named its cloud infrastructure presidents Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia as co-CEOs, as the company’s cloud and artificial intelligence offerings drive a major surge in its share price. Magouyrk and Sicilia will continue to expand Oracle’s AI products, the company said. Oracle Outgoing CEO Safra Catz has been named executive vice chair, and Larry Ellison will continue as board chair and chief technology officer. “Humanity is investing enormous resources in the race to advance Artificial Intelligence. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure is playing a major part in that effort,” said Ellison. “A few years ago, Clay and Mike committed Oracle’s Infrastructure and Applications businesses to AI—it’s paying off,” Ellison said. “Oracle’s future is bright.” Magouyrk was at Amazon Web Services before joining Oracle in 2014, and co-founded Oracle’s cloud engineering team. Sicilia was formerly president of Oracle Industries, and joined Oracle with its acquisition of Primavera Systems in 2008. Catz was named co-CEO in 2014 alongside Mark Hurd after Ellison left the role, and became sole CEO after Hurd’s death in 2019. Oracle’s share price spiked by over 30% this month after its earnings report disclosed remaining performanc

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Paypal sides with Google for new AI shopping agent
PayPal's shares spiked 3% in late trading Wednesday after the digital payments giant announced it's jumping into bed with Google to integrate AI agents buying stuff on your behalf. The multi-year strategic alliance positions both companies at the epicentre of what industry insiders are calling "agentic commerce" - essentially letting AI loose with your credit card whilst you sit back and watch Netflix.Autonomous spendingThe collaboration spans four pillars: Creating AI shopping experiencesEmbedding PayPal across Google's ecosystemProcessing payments for Google's enterprise platforms Modernising PayPal's infrastructure on Google CloudBut the real meat is Google's Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) - an open standard developed with over 60 global partners that's designed to let AI agents transact securely without human intervention. Think of it as the transit code for robot shoppers, complete with cryptographically-signed "mandates" that prove you actually authorised your AI butler to buy that third coffee machine. The protocol requires two-step verification: an "intent mandate" that tells the AI what you're looking for, followed by a "cart mandate" for final approval. AP2 supports everything from traditional cards to stablec
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Musk's trillion-dollar hubris a make or break for Tesla
It's been revealed that on 12 September, Elon Musk dropped US$1 billion (A$1.5 billion) on Tesla shares like most people buy a coffee, sending the stock up 4% and wiping out the company's year-to-date losses. Musk's Tesla shopping spree involved 2.57 million shares at US$372-396 each - his biggest stock purchase ever and first significant buy since February 2020. The timing conveniently coincides with Tesla's board proposing the most audacious pay package in corporate history - a potential US$1 trillion compensation deal that could crown Musk as the world's first bona fide trillionaire. Tesla Chair Robyn Denholm called him a "generational leader" while defending the pay package as essential talent retention.Trillion-dollar mathMusk's current wealth, according to Bloomberg's Billionaires Index, stands at roughly US$419 billion - split between Tesla (37%), SpaceX (that US$145 billion stake), and ventures like xAI. The proposed Tesla compensation would more than double his wealth; however, the company must first reach a US$2 trillion market cap milestone before Musk sees a single share, almost 2X its current US$1.3 trillion value. Each subsequent milestone opens at higher valuations, building to US$8.5 trillion - bigger t
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Nvidia, OpenAI back UK’s sovereign AI strategy
Nvidia and OpenAI are in discussions with the United Kingdom government focused on boosting artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure in the country, with sources familiar with the matter telling CNBC the deal could ultimately be worth billions of dollars. Both companies are reported to be still working through various processes with UK cloud computing firms, and an investment agreement has not yet been finalised. An announcement is expected to be unveiled next week during U.S. President Donald Trump's state visit to the UK, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang set to join Trump on his state visit to Britain. The initiative will be carried out in partnership with London-based operator Nscale Global Holdings, marking one of the largest recent efforts to expand AI and cloud infrastructure in Europe. Countries around the world have been courting major U.S. AI players in a bid to boost their own national infrastructure and technological ambitions. The topic of so-called "sovereign" AI - the idea of onshoring the data processing infrastructure behind advanced artificial intelligence systems - has been top of mind for officials as governments look to reduce their dependency on foreign countries for critical technologies. Tec

Tech

Apple acquires talent, tech from AI startup Prompt

Deloitte deploys Anthropic's Claude to 470,000 staff

Why infrastructure stocks have become AI boom's winners

AI bonanza drives OpenAI’s H1 FY25 revenue up 16%

Oracle names cloud infrastructure heads as new co-CEOs

Paypal sides with Google for new AI shopping agent

Musk's trillion-dollar hubris a make or break for Tesla

Nvidia, OpenAI back UK’s sovereign AI strategy